Over this past long weekend, there were two events that had me thinking about the impact being a father has had on my life. The first was the news of a good friend of mine welcoming the birth of his baby daughter while the second was my family celebrating our oldest daughter’s birthday. Although they’re disparate events, they serve to highlight what I’ve experienced so far being a dad and what I expect will come around the corner in the years ahead.

Near the end of last week, my good friend Matt and his wife gave birth to a baby girl. Talking to him mere hours after the birth of his daughter and hearing him struggle for words, I couldn’t help but smile and remember how the birth of my daughters had had the same impact on me, of how seeing my newborn daughter for the very first time brought to light the reality that our family had now grown by one. You see for men, the idea of there now being this new little person sharing our life doesn’t really sink in until that moment when we meet face to face, and especially when we finally cradle this little package in our arms. Sure, thanks to our wives, we’re aware of how the baby is wrecking havoc on their bladder or that the baby’s calisthenics routine is keeping them up at night to prove the incoming change in our lives. There’s also the undeniable growing belly our wives’ start to carry and that unforgettable moment when we can actually feel our baby kicking from inside the womb. But in the end, Click here to continue reading »”Of Fathers and Daughters”

There was an interesting news report from New Zealand regarding a judge who placed a 9-year old girl in the custody of the court so that her name could be changed. So what was the name that fueled this bold move on the part of this family court judge?

Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii

Seriously, that’s the girl’s name. In the judge’s ruling over this custody case, he wrote in his decision that he was concerned that this name “makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily” and that it demonstrated “the very poor judgment which this child’s parents have shown in choosing this name”. Adding weight to his decision was the comment made by the child’s lawyer that Click here to continue reading »”Absurd Names For Children – Should We Intervene?”